Archive for March 3rd, 2008

2008.03.03

Doug in Tahoe, 2008I’m back from Tahoe. Three days of boarding, one at Sierra at Tahoe and two at the California side of Heavenly. By the end of Sunday, before we left Tahoe, my thighs would burn at the end of each run. It sounds disgusting, but it felt like I pissed down my leg it was so hot!

Every day was great, though Saturday was irritating because they closed the Nevada side of Heavenly and many of the lifts on the California side. This created huge lines, and one of the best runs, Sky Express, was closed. All was remedied on Sunday with Sky Express opened and much shorter lines. If only there wasn’t gale force winds, the day would have been perfect.

My favorite stories from the slopes, probably because I’m involved, involves Mookee. I’m going downhill probably too fast and my friend Redge was ahead of me. Unexpectedly he changed direction and I cut fast to get around him, and then tried cutting back to get back on course. I went one direction but my feet didn’t and in a cloud of snow I went down. It didn’t hurt but it was a little embarrassing with Mookee pointing at me and laughing. To my chagrin, Redge stopped to see if I was OK and hit me with a spray of snow. I thought Mookee would have an aneurism he was laughing so hard. Which is what made events five minutes later so satisfying.

I was following Mookee at a distance when I saw him go over one of the occasionally unexpected bumps on the slope that are far bigger than they look. One of his skis went to one side and the other ski went the opposite direction and suddenly he was down in an explosion of powder, tumbling, sliding way down the hill. I swooped past him laughing and yelling, “How does it feel? How does it feel, Big Boy?” He wasn’t hurt at all, but the wipeout looked so bad that two members of the ski patrol came to make sure.

The lesson: I will always have my revenge. The awesome: both wipeouts were caught on video camera! Alas, I stopped recording a few seconds before Banana Boy bounced down the slopes himself.

Of course this was a group affair and 14 of us were in two condo/cabin/unit things and we drank, ate and made merry every night. I made Meat Purse again (this year’s addition was bread crumbs) and some of my Japanese female companions made curry. I’ll eventually post a gallery of pics and Mookee has threatened to make a video of the weekend from footage and stills. After all of this I’m glad I took today (Monday) off so I could recuperate somewhat. I am tired and sore, but so satisfied. I’ve needed an escape for weeks now.